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Getting paid to draw in Manga style?

Since you're a freelance, is it difficult for you to find companies in the UK interested in manga drawings and style?

Its harder to find work compared to a more mainstream style (which I also have for customers who want an alternative to manga). However there is often a company or organisation who will find and contact me specifically asking for manga style artwork for a Japanese themed promotion or event. Speaking of events for example, Hitachi Europe (based in the UK) were exhibiting at a trade show in Holland a few years back and they had opted for a Japanese themed area that year to display their products. These included interactive large screen pen displays. To add to the Japanese flavour, I was hired to draw manga style art on the displays during the event in real time. I would never have expected that kind of work to come about, but goes to show there's a call for manga, even at non-related events. Having this website is the main portal for connecting me with customers. If you haven't already, make one of your own and then attempt to funnel as many prospective employers to it as you can.

Are you a fan of Comic Cons? Do you participate in any of them?

I really enjoy them, although attending lots throughout the year isn't economically viable for me.

I've participated in 17 cons here in the UK to date. If you're an artist interested in participating in any comic conventions, check out my extensive UK Comic Con article.

Should I sketch my designs before converting them to digital format?

Several years ago it was typical for me to sketch out all my work in pencil before scanning it in and colouring it digitally. To this day there's nothing wrong with that. These days a lot of people are drawing and sketching digitally with a graphic tablet as well colouring, rendering and painting over the top digitally- myself included. The main reason being time saving. The best thing to do is to try different methods and see which works best for you.

How long should it take a designer to design a 300x400 banner?

That question is too open ended to give a simple or specific answer.

If the designer needs to create an intricate illustration, rendered art or animation as a part of that banner along with time for research, idea development and input or changes from a client, it might take 20 or 100 hours+ However a simple text banner created by someone who knows their way around Photoshop or Illustrator might take 5 minutes.

Clients need to consider their briefs in detail when hiring an artist or designer. Basic questions like "how much do you charge?" Or "how long does art take?" Are equivalent to "how long is a piece of string?"

What inspired you to get into designing?

Growing up on a diet of visual entertainment- cartoons, video games and fantasy movies along with a love of aesthetics and a drive to create something of my own.

At what age did you first design a marketable graphic?

The first time I took on a paid commission online was in 2001 when I was 19. I created an album cover for a rock band featuring the 4 band members as comic book characters. I think I earned around £80 for it. I had been paid to draw a few times before then while at school, painting a little graffiti style character for my teacher's grandchild and a painting my friend's mum's cat!

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If there's a question you'd like answered relating to art, or digital illustration, feel free to contact me or leave a comment. Check out Art Q&A #1 for more.

I often get asked art questions from aspiring artists, so thought I'd share some answers from time to time. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer them on the next post 🙂

Does scaling down an image result in quality loss?

I know that if you resize images to make them larger the quality of that image is either blurred or not the best quality and loses detail.
What if you wish to scale down? Would all the details/quality look blurred? I have been asked by a client to produce art at only 1900x900 pixel dimensions. I would really like to draw on a larger sized canvas but if I size down my image It'll lose any detail?

Yes. You will lose detail if you down-scale since you're lessening the pixel information you have in an image. However There is no noticeable quality difference between down-scaling to say 1900x900 and working with those dimensions to begin with.

What I would do is work at the largest dimensions possible. Save a copy which you then down-scale to fit. You'll then also always have a higher detail version if needed.

How do I create an interesting Manga story ?

What are the basics? Is it okay to take reference from other stories (movies songs and so on). I know many stories are based on something else but I am afraid of making it to easy to recognise. How should a good story start ? How do I plan it?

Ask yourself what would you like to read about? What kinda stories inspire you? It's fine to borrow ideas. There are loads of time travel stories for example, but each one is told in a different way with a different cast of characters and different scenarios.

For manga I like stories about everyday life, where the hero starts as a loser and progress to greatness, usually with the help of something, someone or a special item or power that other people don't have. So far as I'm concerned if people stick with a basic premise like that they can't go wrong 🙂

Start by considering a chapter (20-30) pages and how you would convey your premise and introduce your main characters.
Start with rough draft or written script before finalising by moving on to the pencil and ink work.

Photoshop or Paint Tool Sai?

I really want to take my art to the next level and to get into digital painting and I'm not sure which program is better for that. I've only had brief experiences with both programs so I'm not that familiar with either. I also want to go to art school for animation and graphic design so if either of these programs could help me with that in the long run, that would be great as well.

1. Most companies or universities wont have Sai available or teach it.
2. Photoshop interface is similar in programs like Illustrator and Indesign which you'll use if you also get into graphic design.
3. Photoshop can be used much easier for things like photo editing and texture creation for animation.

Sai is an awesome program for art and illustration, but having said that, 4 outta 5 people who recommend it do so on the basis of: "it's easier for beginners", "That's what I've always used", and "It's cheaper". That's fair enough for hobbyists but it has more limitations than advantages over something like PS.

I wonder how many professionals in the art, design, animation and illustration industries exclusively use Sai? Probably not that many.

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If there's a question you'd like answered relating to art, or digital illustration, feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

I mentioned my plight on the DeviantArt forums - asking how can I/we, as artists, can stop this?

The general opinion was to not upload high quality images on to the net and use watermarking to at least help prevent this. Fair enough advice, and something I'd already started doing anyway. But it was interesting to find many of the replies indicated that they felt the onus was on the artist to minimise the damage beforehand and if the damage had already been done, then tough luck. There was a lack of criticism or interest towards the companies/individuals that steal or the sites which allow them to sell an artist's stolen goods on their platform, or the fact that these platforms (e.g Facebook, Instagram, Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay) make it difficult to either report cases of copyright infringement or do very little, if anything, to act upon it.

Sure, there are ways for an artist to minimise the chance of their work being stolen and used by third parties, but if that fails, then what? We sit back and allow crooked individuals or companies to take our images to profit from while perpetuating the idea that if it's already on the internet it's free game? And should the artist be seen as the one at fault in such cases when they are ultimately a victim of the crime? You can make your home more secure- lock the doors and install a burglar alarm, but if you are still burgled anyway, there is at least a police force in place whose duty it is to investigate and hopefully apprehend the criminals responsible. Online there should be a similar system or authority in place...

Well, there is. But you've got to pay for it. One forum member pointed me at the DCMA - The Digital Millennium Copyright Act which works though a business, whereby if you pay them $199 they will initiate a take-down request to have your content removed from an offending site. For small scale theft this is obviously too high a price to pay. Especially if you're an independent artist living on a tight budget as it is. Plus what happens when another site or seller pops up and uses your image? Do you pay yet another $199 to get that one taken down too?

It shouldn't be hard to to get offending content taken down- I have a reputation, can prove I created it and have the original Photoshop files or sketches to boot, meanwhile I know for a fact the offending art thief does not have these, and would fail, if asked to produce any kind of written agreement stating permission to use the content in question. And then you just have to look at what else these jokers are selling to put things into context- a jumbled mix of artwork produced in wildly different styles (and arguably of different artistic abilities), obviously created by a wide range of artists with no mention where the artwork was sourced from, poorly edited or Photoshoped on to products. Sometimes still retaining the artist's signature or watermark, which is typically removed if licencing art to third parties. And it's being sold from China through unofficial channels and we all know China doesn't take piracy particularly seriously.

So as it stands, according to some artists, the blame seems to be primarily with the artist themselves. If you're a small independent artist being ripped off online, you often can't do much about it. The DCMA is there if you don't mind forking over $200 for help.

In a ideal world, perhaps there would be some kind of block-chain system whereby the rights to every image, film or piece of music could be traced back to a registered owner. This information would be embedded into the file itself, with a registry of previous owners being attached to each file. Might sound like a crazy idea, and I haven't spent too much time thinking about how logistically possible such a system would be, but surely help with digital piracy of images, music and video?

Someone on social media asked how the could buy me a coffee (donate) to support what I do. Like any artist, I really appreciate any support from those who like my work. The best way to support would be to buy some signed artwork from the shop plus you'd have something cool to show for it. I've added a few new prints including my Alita and Harley Quinn marker pieces. And if you want some custom-made artwork, check out the Hire Me section for more info.

Sometimes I'll create a sketch or two, other times more finished artworks, but most of the time I don't add these to my main gallery. I'm trying to reserve the gallery for my top 30 or so works but it's hard to know exactly which art to include in my portfolio. For now I use the Blog to update with other bits and pieces I'm working on. But even on the blog, it can be tricky to know if something is worth posting. I'll draw little doodles and crappy sketches often, but don't necessarily want to post every little thing and don't want to feel I'm contributing the internet's archive of pointless content! I think about this a lot- There's so much stuff on the web, so what is actually worth posting online?

For many companies, organisations and individual artists the idea is to post often in hopes of supplying your audience with a constant supply of content and sustaining yourself as a fixture in their lives, build some kind of online relationship, and in return you hope gain a following, receive kudos or generate income. For independent creators it can be difficult to post regularly or create enough finished content. So on the one hand I feel like I should throw up some rough sketches or incomplete drawings, since posting something is considered better than nothing. On the other hand, I don't want to litter the web or my sites with valueless (in my opinion) posts just for the sake of posting. Plus, to be honest, I don't like the pressure of feeling like I have to keep posting updates online.

Another thing, I'd be happy to post more on my site's blog (here) since I have a chance to go into more detail about what I'm doing or thinking (or also keep it simple), but 99% of my audiences are mostly on social media - primarily Instagram. And Instagram's format isn't really suitable for more than a square image post and a line or two of description. Unless this blog was to get more attention, it's hard to justify spending too much time posting here often. Therefore, for now I don't.

Moving on, having said that, here's a piece I'd been wanting to rework for a few years:

The Photoshop screen shot above shows the original concept on the left, and the update on the right. Decided I'd make the final version below a little lighter and although it's a little sketchy and unrefined, I think I'll leave it as it is for now. Not all ideas or art needs to be polished to perfection.

Thought I'd share a little gallery of photos I'd previously taken and posted on Instagram. I usually just post art on Instagram, but sometimes you just come across something interesting and want to capture or document it.

From time to time I like to tidy up my portfolio. Never an easy task to decide which works stay and which ones go and there's usually at least one thing I like about every image I create and one thing that demonstrates a different skill or technique I'm capable of. Originally my portfolio was only ever going to be around a dozen pieces, but my gallery layout allows for more without looking over the top so decided to populate it with some extra works.

Decided to remove this ninja girl commission I did back in 2013- seems a little basic compared to some of the more recent stuff I've been doing but still like the bold red background and the flower boarder, so maybe I'll use those elements in a new piece some time?

And I've added the following:
Harley Quin Fan art I did this year in Markers and Ink which I since sold to a customer in France. Plus a more monochromatic Skull/Wolf/Girl image I created for chrome/mirror prints (which can be ordered in the Shop) This one was done in Photoshop CC with my Wacom Cintiq tablet. That now makes 31 portfolio pieces.

Frequently Asked questions...

Sometimes it can get tiring re-writing the same answers to the same questions week after week despite answering on social media so often and the fact they they still come up all the time makes me suspect this post might go noticed also.

I don't want to appear ignorant, so will always courteously reply but I'm sure I'm not the only artist who's bored of answering things like "Can you draw me a picture of X?" and "How much do you charge for art?". I'll answer the questions with the same response I give to those who have asked in the past as well as comment (or perhaps moan is the right word? ha ha) on the question itself in italics.

How much do you charge?

I'm honoured to know you like my work enough to want to commission me. I will need to know exactly what you want created before I'm able to give a price. For example a pencil sketch of a head will take considerably less time and therefore cost less than illustrating an entire book or creating 6 months worth of video game assets. The Hire Me page on this site was created to answer this question and give customers an understanding of how to commission artwork from me.

Please appreciate this question gets handed to me at least once a week so can't help let out a sigh every time! Imagine asking a builder "how much do you charge?" to build a house. It could be inexpensive if you only want it for your kids to play in or dog to lay in, or it could cost tens of millions if it needs dozens bedrooms of and 20 bathrooms! Or what about walking into a restaurant and asking "how much do you charge?". There's going to be a big difference between a side salad and lobster dish, so surely most people would at least ask if they have a menu if not specifying, for example, "how much do you charge for a salad"?

I appreciate it might seem like a genuine query and perhaps wrong of me to expect the potential customer to consider an artist's services don't carry a single value e.g. £100. And, unlike a restaurant, a menu of prices is difficult to create when you're an artist like myself who posts/ advertises/ is able to create a wide range of different types of art. However it has become evident that the vast majority of potential customers asking little more than "how much do you charge?" aren't particularly serious about commissioning work to begin with and/or wouldn't be prepared to pay my prices anyway. The serious ones have already done the sensible thing of researching me on this site (perhaps arriving here via the link in my bio on social media sites) which can answer most preliminary questions before continuing to contact me. When clients write an introduction, a brief and specifics with politeness and etiquette I'll sit up and give the request the attention it deserves 🙂

What materials do you use?

I've likely already posted #photoshop and #cintiq in the description on social media art posts, yet people still ask on these posts what I use. I do wish people would pay more attention.

I think a lot of people are looking for expert insider information with this one to help give them the edge, but does it really matter what I use? You can achieve similar results to most things I create with dozens of different software or traditional media, so much of the time it comes down to personal preference and my methods may not suit other people. It's strange that most other artists also list this as a most frequently asked question when there are so many other important or interesting questions that could be asked.

I've written art tutorial books which discuss tools of the trade in far more depth than I can cover in a reply online, so better just to buy those- they're reasonably priced and not going to break the bank.

Can you draw me a picture for free?

Sorry. I'm too busy with work and commissions.

There's a few reasons why I wont do this:

I feel it's disrespectful to ask an artist or any professional to work for free. It's like walking into a hairdressers and asking for a free haircut.

Like most creatives, I have so many ideas for things I'd like to create that I don't have time or want to devote mental energy to focusing on someone else's project (unless compensated). I especially wouldn't have time if I'm spending vast amounts of my life drawing pictures for anyone who asks.

Giving away freebies would be unfair to customers who have happily paid me to have artwork created for them in the past or will do in the future.

Does anyone ever actually say yes to this request? I would imagine every artist gets asked this question all the time and I'm sure we all face-palm every time.

How long have you been drawing?

I'm in my mid thirties so quite a long time. Read my Backstory for more info.

Can you give me some art tips?

I'd rather aspiring artists buy and read my How to Draw Manga books (in this site's Shop or via Amazon) which gives hundreds of tips. If you've read my books cover to back I guarantee you'll learn something new and anything needs more clarifying, let me know and I'm happy to help as much as I can.

I know everyone's looking for a free education, but sometimes putting your hand in your pocket and investing just a small amount in a tutorial book can be such a time saver. I also think if you've paid for information, you're more likely to take on board what's being said plus I'd feel happier to see people using what I teach in the books than me handing them some general advice on social media which wont stick or be sufficient to make people want to sit down, try a new technique and feel inspired to create.

Can you tell me how to become a pro artist?

I don't have a good answer to this one. Every artist will need to find their own way to success. I'm not deliberately trying to be vague, but it would be impossible for anyone to replicate what I did to established myself. Why? The internet was still in it's infancy when I started out. Opportunities to promote yourself online were quite different than they are today. Plus luck had a lot to do with it. For now I'd advise just working hard on improving your portfolio and skills, start small and work your way up. So far as Social Media goes, I will say, unless you're work is phenomenal, simply creating a Facbook page or other social media account and posting up art once a week isn't going to be enough to secure any work on it's own. You'll need to devote a lot of time and energy to marketing yourself and making others aware that you and your awesome, unique art exists. That might involve interacting with other people's content, liking, following, sharing and being a good online-citizen in hope of reciprocation, or finding a use for your services within communities you're involved with, both on and offline.

Thought I'd share a few pics of my current work space at my studio. It looks a little something like this.

I've got my trusty Lenovo Laptop to the left, and a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet to my right which is attached to a Ergotron arm- this means I can keep the Cintiq in a floating position for general surfing and writing, then re-position and tilt it down onto on the desk. I have a custom large mouse mat for the desk to match the canvas I drew on the wall- the main reason is to stop the bottom of the tablet getting scratched or damaged on the desk when I push it in place. The black gel padded mouse mat supports my wrist.

I use 'Smudge guard 2' when working on the tablet to prevent smear and reduce friction and often wear a pair of crystal Gunnar glasses which provide a small degree of eye relief when staring at the screen all day.

An external 1TB 2.5" overflow drive for movies and less frequently used data, an external 5TB drive for backing up [Located at home]

Ergotron LX Arm

Cannon LiDE A4 scanner [Located at home]

Epson Stylus 1500W A3+ Deskjet printer [Located at home]

Wacom Cintiq 27QHD Touch Graphics Tablet

Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000

Logitech 2.1 Speakers

Additional Web Cam: Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 [Not in photo]

The mounted Microphone is a Samson C01U

My Laptop is now 4 years old, and I'd usually consider upgrading it after this amount of time, but I'm finding it hard to find something drastically better for an affordable price. Anyone use a Mac Book pro? I've seen a similar spec model to my current laptop, be it with a better resolution screen, but it's 3 times the price. I couldn't imagine the upgrade being worth it. I'll no-doubt stick with what I have for a few more years to come then reassess my options. As much as I hate Microsoft, I'm familiar with Windows OS on a pretty deep level, so will likely stick with it also. And does anyone own an A3 size scanner? I'd like one but they are so expensive compared to A4. Other than that I'm pretty content with my current set up.

If anyone wants a non-bias opinion on any aspect of the above tech or set-up, leave a message and I'll add a follow-up comment 🙂